


Autumn in the clouds

by Jack_neverending_will05



Category: Mo Dao Zu Shi, 陈情令 | The Untamed (TV)
Genre: M/M, Really just fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-02
Updated: 2021-02-02
Packaged: 2021-03-13 11:28:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,441
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29152797
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jack_neverending_will05/pseuds/Jack_neverending_will05
Summary: Wei Wuxian had traveled through a big part of the world by then, if there was one thing he couldn't imagine, it was coming across a new kind of magic. However, life is full of surprises.When someone has been away from home for so long, sometimes they need to be reminded of the way back.Set in the time between the farewell on the mountain and Wei Wuxian's return to Gusu.
Relationships: WangXian - Relationship
Kudos: 13





	Autumn in the clouds

**Author's Note:**

> This is a translation of my One Shot of the same name in Spanish. English is not my first lenguage so if there's something wrong please let me know!
> 
> Also, if you'd like me to continue this or post another OS also let me know uwu, I hope you enjoy it!

The streets of the small town were bursting with life that autumn night. The lights of the lamps above the street gave the market a warm feeling to it, making it almost seem a piece of art. 

Sellers of all kinds of objects offered their merchandise, shouting among themselves to compete for the customers that euphorically approached the stalls, obstructing the view of many of the products for those who only passed on the street observing the stalls without care.

Wei wuxian was one of those people, however it did not bother him that he didn’t have a clear view of the objects offered on the tables, as he already had two bottles of “winter dream” in his hands, the softest but most delicious liquor he had ever tasted… Well, at least the best he’d had in some time. 

he thought without intending to really think about him, but letting his thoughts wander to the same place they always returned to. he smiled a little at the thought of a flushed and drunk Lan Zhan.

Life far away from everything had not been easy, as it had become a habit by now, the young man would go out at night to visit every corner of the city where he was sleeping at that time, immersing himself in the noise of the crowds as much as possible, just to not have to think about the way back home … if he could even call somewhere “home”. 

After long minutes in which he found himself returning to the place where he was staying, something finally caught his attention enough for him to fix his gaze on one of the stalls, it was a woman…

He had gotten used, since his “rise to fame” as the Yiling Patriarch, to finding countless people wearing his style and trying to sell whatever low-quality product they had on hand, but this was the first time he’d seen a young woman using this technique.

Curious, the young man approached the table where the teenager was arranging her products, getting surprised when he realized that there were no typical “patriarch artifacts” on the table, not a single compass or cheap spell against ghosts , but instead there were different normal objects, such as mirrors and jewelry, and in the center of the table a cluster of small bags decorated with different emblems of known clans and some others he did not recognize, those that surely had arisen in the time he spent being dead. 

Sixteen years can change the world a lot.

“Good evening sir, I see you have good taste” said the girl with a somewhat forced smile, still Wei Wuxian offered her a genuine warm smile in return, even if he had heard about his “good taste” from the mouth of a thousand salesmen before and each time he approached one of the stalls. 

“What are these things you sell?” he asked, taking one of the bags with a known emblem, that of the Nie clan.

“Take a quartz from the bag and breathe in its scent, tell me what you can feel” said the woman a little excited to find someone who didn’t know of her invention yet.

The young man did as she told him, taking a green colored quartz in his hands and bringing it close to his face to feel its scent.

“I smell … the smell of lantern paper and … boiled rice” he said as a smile grew on his face, remembering someone whose favorite fan had the same aroma. Without a doubt, the girl had grasped the essence of the Nie clan very well.

“That one is called ~the wind of Qinghe~, it was one of the first essences that I collected and I only did it for the love that I had for that trip, and for that smell” said the young woman.

“Since then I have collected the essence of each place that I have visited in my life, compacting a part of it in each of these quartz, that way whoever takes them in their hands will be able to feel the essence of that place. It will be like having a small part of it always with you … “ said the girl looking down, remembering something that Wei Wuxian could not guess.

“How did you do it? How did you make it smell like that?” Wei Wuxian asked, still amazed by the quartz between his fingers, noting that at first glance it did not look like a magic object, but when he touched it inside he saw a part of the city of Qinghe in motion “it is really incredible” he said.

“I really didn’t-“

“Ah, don’t tell me that this is an invention of the Yiling Patriarch, because I can assure you that it is not” the young man said with a smile, thinking about the irony that only he knew that sentence holded, without noticing the confused and indignant faces that those who passed them on the street behind put when hearing a mention of the patriarch. 

“I mean, yeah, I invented It, but-“

“And why do you come dressed as one of the patriarch’s followers? So many years have passed, one would think that people would have found someone else to hate and follow … he really wasn’t that important.”

“You have to be kidding me” said the woman sounding annoyed with the last statement “Wei Wuxian was one of the greatest cultivators of our era and he does not deserve the little respect people give him!” this time people stopped for a moment to look at the girl as if she was insane, only to keep walking a few seconds later.

Noticing her mistake in scaring off potential buyers, the girl stepped back into her stall, with a pained and indignant look. “I know that in the last years of his life he did some things wrong, but before that he was a young man like everyone else … he loved to travel, just like me”

Wei Wuxian was speechless for a moment, normally people didn’t know more about him than the atrocities that were told, as if his life were a horror story to tell to children. But, this young woman somehow admired him without listening to the stories of others and he could not decipher the reason for this.

“Also, I didn’t make it just to pass it off as his creation, I just admire his style and I like to dress like him. I see that you are the same, that is one of the best replicas I have seen of his clothing “

“Ahah, umm, yeah, I spent quite a bit of time making it” the cultivator lied not knowing what else to say.

“And to answer your question, I didn’t make it have the scent you felt, you did that yourself” the girl replied, rearranging the order of the bags that had been ruined after she hit the table.

“… I still don’t understand” Wei Wuxian said still confused.

“The quartz, they have a spell that channels the positive energy of the body into memories for the senses. That is to say, when someone has already visited any of these places before, by touching the quartz they will be able to feel the most precious moments that place has for the person ”the girl took another bag from another drawer, this time marked with the symbol from a sect he didn’t recognize.  
“Here, tell me what you can feel”

Wei Wuxian closed his eyes and tried to feel something, but to no avail, neither a smell nor taste nor sound was different for him when touching the stone.

“It’s normal if you felt nothing, I don’t think everyone knows about my small town, although everyone should… Hangzhou is really beautiful” she said, taking the stone in her hands, and smiling instantly, clearly thinking of her hometown.  
“But once you know it, the energy that your body accumulates from the place is transported to the quartz, it is the best way to keep a memory alive”

“It’s seriously impressive, someone as young as you must be very smart to invent spells this complex”  
Wei Wuxian said, seriously admiring the young girl’s ability. She couldn’t be more than eighteen, maybe even less than that.

“The quartz was my idea, but I had help with the spell” the people on the street next to them had already begun to disperse, because the night had suddenly turned cold, to which she began to put away her bags for the the next day’s sale, snatching the quartz from Wei Wuxian’s hands.  
“It was some years ago that I actually learned the spell, when my family had to be relocated due to the change of power in my city. When we escaped we went so far that I felt sad that I could never return to my home, the only memory I had was this quartz … then I met him, a man from the clan who saved us saw my sadness and I suppose he identified with it because i could also feel the sadness he had for something he couldn’t go back to. “

Wei Wuxian, always enjoying a good story, had stolen a stool from the stall next to the young woman’s, to better listen to the story, resting his arms on the shelf with the stones that were being stored. “Go on,” he said.

“For months, despite not being a disciple of his clan, he taught me magic in the city and helped me channel the good energy that I had lost when I lost my home. When i told him about quartz, he remembered a spell that he had heard about before and taught it to me. That was the best day of my life, on the stone I could see my friends, see my streets, feel the aroma of the trees and savor my mother’s food, I didn’t know how to thank him, but he asked me not to”.

“He sounds like a good guy” said Wei Wuxian between bites, thought the young woman. 

“He was” she replied “He admired many things, I think he could see the good in everyone, even if it didn’t seem like it, he was someone very gentle… I always hope he’s okay, I even saved this quartz to remember those moments with him“ she said taking from one of her shelves, a little but very beautiful blue and silver quartz that was even visibly cracked, proof of its use. 

“Even he taught me history, but not the kind of history elders tell in class, no, the true story of everything. Did you know the Yiling Patriarch was actually a good man?, he told me that-“

The young man was fed up with hearing his title everywhere, his past reputation, good or bad, he simply didn’t care about it anymore, he didn’t want to hear what she had to say about him so, without thinking, Wei Wuxian took the quartz between his hands and closed his eyes, causing the young woman to let out a small annoyed cry for a second, before stopping when she noticed the paralyzed face of the Yiling patriarch.

In an instant, Wei Wuxian could no longer hear the noise from the street or taste the bread that he had bought from the street vendor, suddenly everything had a smell of.. orchids… and emperor’s smile. He could hear the Guqin strings ringing vaguely in the distance with the same nameless melody that he heard even in his dreams, he could feel hands on his hands, the sound of a river, the smell of a music sheet, the taste of lips that were not his own, and in the immensity of his senses he swore could almost see-  
“Lan Zhan” he said, opening his eyes and letting fall tears that he didn’t know he was holding back.

“Yes, that man was Hanguang Jun. He seriously lives up to his legend, although it is somewhat distorted, he is sweeter than people imagines. After a while I wanted to thank him, I returned to Gusu having visited many places in the world and offered him all the quartz that he wanted, I even asked him not to pay me, something silly considering that his family is one of the richest in China, but still, he did not accept my quartz, he only asked me for something in return, but I never understood exactly why” she said, remembering the moment with affection ”a bag with the fragrance of Yunmeng“.

Wei Wuxian’s eyes widened when he heard the name of the city of the lotus pier, almost shedding a few more tears at the thought of Lan Zhan wanting to have a quartz to remember him… him …

“What is this one called?! Give it to me please!” The young man almost screamed holding Gusu’s quartz in his hands, not wanting to let it go.

“Hey, that’s mine, it doesn’t even have a name, you can have any other of these here, whichever you want”

“Please …” Begged the young man, more desperate than he wanted to sound. The girl noticed this, she had only seen that sadness a few times in the past, if she had a solution for it then she had to fix it, as she had promised Hanguang Jun.

“Okay, but you are not Hanguang Jun, pay me” she said extending her hand.

“Uuuh, I only have this, I’m sorry” Wei Wuxian quickly got rid of the two liquor containers that he carried around his waist, for once in his life he didn’t feel like getting drunk.

“Uh, okay, I accept it” she said, earning a smile from the young man “but let me think of a name, in case someone asks you who did it and what is the stone called …”

After a few seconds the young woman’s face lit up “Autumn in the clouds, Mei Xiang’s creation” she said proudly before finishing putting away her things and lifting her seat. “Now go, soon it will start to rain and I don’t want to stay here”

After walking back to the place he was staying in with the bag with the Lan clan symbol engraved on it, Wei Wuxian held the rock all night, drowning in the memory of every little moment there in Gusu, every word, every touch… it was then he decided that memories would not be enough to live like this, traveling through the world forever. It was time to go home, time to return to him.

After a long journey, an autumn in the clouds turned into an eternity in them and Wei Wuxian couldn’t be happier.


End file.
